How do you store your food in the bush?

[elvagabundo]

Most of my bushwalking experience comes from Canada where no food (or anything with strong odors) enters the tent. It is all cached in a bag and hung from a tree away from the sleeping area in order to keep bears, cougars, wolves and rodents away from the camp.

I'm currently preparing for the South Coast Track and was intending to cache in the same way I have always done, but have been warned that if I hang my food from a branch the possums will have a field day. In the past I have attached the top half of a plastic bottle to the cache rope in order to deter rodents from scaling down but this would only serve as a small obstacle for a larger dextrous animal.

I do not want to keep any food in my tent because I aim to keep it hole-free.

My questions to you are:

1) Do you think hanging my food several metres below a tree branch and above the ground is a bad idea in Southern Tasmania?
2) How do you normally store your food at night in the Aussie bush?

[jez_au]

Yeah excellent question. I put all my food and food utensils in my pack dry sack, seal, put in my pack, cover with clothes, all this into my tent (there's almost enough space). I've never had a problem with this method, in the Flinders SA, Victoria, coastal SA, Top End, and Tassie (not South Coast). Friends camping with me have had problems whe leaving food in the their packs in their tent, or in dry sacks in their packs in tent vestibules.

For the Larapinta Trail during a mouse plague I planned to use a couple of large tins, the coffee/milo 1.5kg type, because they are mouse proof, airtight, light (a little lighter than hard plastic) and reliably seal shut (sometimes even the Sistema containers don't remain closed, and they are quite heavy). Mouse numbers had dropped by the time I went up there so I didn't need to use them.

[hikingoz]

I hung a food drop at Pass Creek below the Arthurs Ranges for over a week. It was in a waterproof bag and suspended below a high branch and tied off at ground level. Nothing got to it. I did have my food bag chewed through while sleeping on another trip in the same area.

[north-north-west]

Everything is in sealed bags/containers, inside a sealed dry bag, inside the pack (which is closed), inside either the tent or the vestibule. Never had a problem.

[corvus]

Normally like others keep food in Tent in well sealed containers ,in huts suspend it from roof in trees use shock cord the Possums will "bungee off" I think
corvus

[Mark F]

I always keep my food in a sil-nylon stuff sac. When camping it goes inside the net inner and gets hung up if in a hut. The only time I have had a problem is when I left the food bag outside the tent.

[ffourie]

Hi, we just returned from the South Coast Track. One of the walkers in my group was a Canadian who is quite used to caching the food to keep it away from bears. So every night at camp he would find the biggest possible tree. We combined all the food bags in air tight sacks, and using a rock would throw the rope across a high branch and then suspend the bags "high" up in the air. We also used a 2l coke bottle cut open and turned upside down to prevent the possums/rats from sliding down the rope. On one night we failed, and someone got in the bag, we later realized that the food was stored in a normal sack, not the airtight ones as on previous nights. Only some trail mix was lost, but non the less, it created for some sleepless nights, as you were always on the listen and woke at the slightest noise, thinking somethings is enjoying your food.

[Mafeking09]

Which campsite? We're about to do the track ourselves and have been hearing about rodent issues!

[jackhinde]

glad someone brought this up, as i've been thinking about this all week. i am putting in a food cache this weekend. I will retrieve it 5 days into a longer hike i am doing at easter.
I have decided to put everything in an air tight systema tub, stashed in a sandstone cave which should be easy to find where i'm headed... my work colleague was most amused this morning to find out i was walking 35km in the bush this weekend to achieve this.
i usually have my food in my tent in my bag. i have only once had an animal invade a shelter, and that was a quoll- which my girlfriend and i didnt mind seeing up close.

[Pteropus]

I have a light Tupperware type container that fits mountain bread and many other items. Sits at the bottom of my pack. Anything that doesn't fit in the container goes into a dry sack, which I make sure is sealed. This stays in my pack in the tent vestibule. Never had a drama (yet).

Normally I am pedantic about sealing off all food before I sleep, but on the South Coast Track last year a native rodent or marsupial discovered I had left some nuts in the pockets of my pants and had a crack at them. Lucky they were draped over the pack in the vestibule, so no holes in the tent...pants have a hole now though! A friend had some critter gnaw through a plastic water bottle...the only thing in that was water. There was a creek 25 metres away from the tent....other hikers in camp had their food between them, with the idea that anything going for it would wake them, but they were not woken and found holes in their tents and food scattered about the tent in the morning! But all my food in the container went unmolested. Except the cheeky devil in the photo had a crack

Beware of the devil!

Breakfast and lunch fit into the container at rear - food for 3 days

[jez_au]

the cheeky devil in the photo had a crack

I do hope no cheeky devils were harmed in the taking of that photo.

Nice to read of other pedantic people when it comes to the food.

[jacko1956]

For the first half of my Bibbulmun Track walk I used what I jokingly referred to as my mouse canister.
A large plastic container I bought for the task that fitted sideways in my pack.

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I was mainly trying to get a feel for how hard it would be to walk in the USA with a bear canister but also was able to sleep unconcerned about mice or possums. I had previously had nights interrupted by possums.
I found it quite good but limiting. At Northcliffe it went home along with a couple of other bits of gear and after that I just hung my pack with all food in bags inside but that wasn't tenting, it was in huts.
I think a similar container for at least some very rodent appealing food items wood work well in a tent. It does cut down greatly on scent attraction.

[MartyGwynne]

Ahh The south coast track rodents. I have had a tent chewed through about 7 years ago at surprise bay camp site, stupidly I stowed the food against the side of the tent - bush rat had a feed.
Two weeks ago south coast track (SCT) again and no problems what so ever.......
BUT be warned Louisa River camp both sides of the river you will need to take anti-Quoll measures as we were warned about the cute little fella wanting his photo taken for a small donation of your food. I had to discourage him firmly but friendly by a well aimed sizeable stick around the rump and he never came back to us....
Though I did see a grown man running flat out through the bush and scrub early the next morning on the other side of the river - undoubtedly chasing the quoll for their food back (I did have a bit of a giggle behind a tree).
Oh getting back to what I used was a 5 litre plastic tub (sort of paint pot with clip on lid heavy duty) it weighs 250 grams and has been left outside the tent even away from the tent without being disturbed or gnawed through. It also doubles as a seat and washing container and packs in my back pack upside down in the bottom next to my stove (trangia).
I only stored my dry food in it and kept my other food in a dry bag in my pack in my tent next to my feet so if I heard something sniffing around I could kick my pack and hopefully scare them off.

OK SCT we were warned by some rangers that the boat crossing camp site has an issue with bush rats (they lost some food to them) and South cape rivulet has a bad bush rat problem along with the Loiusa River Quoll as per photo.
No Quolls were actually harmed unless by over consumption of tasty cheese and calabrese salami.

[climberman]

Love the milo tin idea. Great topic, lovely answers.